February 10: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

February 10, 2024 Brokelyn Staff

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ON THIS DAY IN 1847, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “John Quincy Adams — This venerable statesman, whose detention by reason of severe illness from his seat in congress has been generally known, arrived in N.Y. city last evening en route for Washington. He is accompanied by his wife and his son, Charles Francis Adams.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1884, the Eagle reported, “An interesting feature of the memoir of Thurlow Weed, by his grandson, Thurlow Weed Barnes, will be a batch of heretofore unpublished letters from distinguished public men, among them Clay, Webster, Lincoln and Seward.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1928, the Eagle reported, “This canard of the football player being the college dumbbell and eulogy of the wrestler as a mentally superior person is all bosh, Columbia University intelligence tests notwithstanding. Take that from ‘Eddie’ Driggs, Princeton football and baseball star in 1914, 1915 and 1916, better known, perhaps, by his associates in Brooklyn insurance circles today by his more dignified name of Edmund H. Driggs Jr. And yet — ‘One of the most brilliant men in my Princeton class of 1917 was a wrestler,’ mused ‘Eddie’ reminiscently. ‘But,’ he hastened to explain, ‘although he was a mental heavyweight, he was only a lightweight wrestler — weighed about 135 pounds, I believe.’ Which may or may not mean anything. The Columbia statistics which gave the wrestler a high intelligence rating made no mention of intelligence varying inversely to weight. Then from ‘Eddie’ another admission: ‘I have known quite a few football players who were pretty close to being dumbbells.’ After the interviewer had been duly impressed with this, ‘Eddie’ smiled and added: ‘And I have known many who were not.’ Speaking seriously, ‘Eddie’ believes that, taken by and large, the college football men are perhaps somewhat more intelligent than the students who do not go in for athletics. He subdivides these two groups and throws aside one of the subdivisions of each as not worth considering: The non-athletic student who comes to college merely to have a good time and the athletic student who comes to college merely to play football. Ordinarily neither is very intelligent and each finds himself ultimately kicked out for failure to make the grade. But the serious student who also plays football is generally an up-and-coming youth, both mentally and physically. ‘These fellows are ready and willing to work hard on the gridiron and then work overtime in the laboratory at night to make up for the time spent in football practice so that they will not fall behind in scholarship,’ he said.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “For purposes of schedule-making, leagues must be divided into two sections. That complicates life in the American League since the franchise shift from St. Louis to Baltimore gives the league five clubs in the East and only three in the Midwest. This is not an insuperable difficulty and has been solved, after a fashion, by regarding the Orioles as a Western club. And so certain road-trips of all ball clubs will zig-zag peculiarly unless a trip either begins or ends in Baltimore. For example, the order of itinerary on the opening Yankee western trip is Cleveland-Detroit-Baltimore-Chicago. On their third swing, the Yanks will follow that route in exact reverse. But the weirdest sensation of all is reserved for the Baltimore players. The Orioles will open the season in Detroit, then play the White Sox, Tigers and Indians at home, then visit Chicago before embarking upon a four-city tour of ‘the East.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1956, the Brooklyn Record reported, “The combined forces of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and the Brooklyn Civic Council went into high gear today to insure a new home for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Chamber’s President S.T. Williams centered his guns on Albany Hill, bombarding Brooklyn’s 31 legislators with a stirring letter appeal that they approve the Authority which would be created to enable the erection of a Brooklyn Sports Stadium. Arno J. Biederman, President of the Council, also took to the letter writing attack but centered his salvos on the local front. He asked all delegates and members of the Council to ‘take whatever action is possible to support the proposal.’ The issue was joined early this week when Borough President John Cashmore and Mayor Robert F. Wagner jointly announced tentative plans for the creation of a ‘Sports Center’ in the general vicinity of the Brooklyn terminal of the Long Island Rail Road.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “KANSAS CITY, MO. — Kansas City will be the new home of the American Football League Champion Dallas Texans in 1963 if the Chamber of Commerce can sell 25,000 advance tickets. If not, millionaire owner Lamar Hunt says his team will stay in Dallas. The proposed move got the unanimous blessing of the City Council yesterday with approval of Mayor H. Roe Bartle’s resolution of intent. It promises to increase the size of Municipal Stadium to 45,500 seats for football. The resolution also would give the AFL team a seven-year lease on the stadium for $1 per year for the first two years. The city would receive 5 per cent of the net gate receipts the remaining five years, if the net gate exceeded $1.1 million. If not, the $1 per year would be in effect. The stadium, home of the second division Kansas City Athletics baseball team, costs the A’s between $140,000 and $150,000 annually, Mayor Bartle said. The Chamber of Commerce has agreed to take over advance ticket sales. Hunt said 25,000 advance tickets in $7 box and $6 reserve seats would insure his team a break-even operation. The wealthy, young Texan said last season’s advance ticket sales in Dallas totaled about 5,300.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “Jose Ferrer and Florence Henderson will be starred in the yet untitled musical version of the Terence Rattigan comedy ‘The Sleeping Prince,’ which Herman Levin will place in rehearsal August 27 under the direction of Joe Layton. Levin’s first musical since ‘My Fair Lady’ will have music and lyrics by Noel Coward and a book by Harry Kurnitz. Jose Ferrer was last seen here in ‘Edwin Booth’ in 1958. Miss Henderson recently toured in the Mary Martin role in ‘The Sound of Music.’” (Editor’s note: Florence Henderson was born on Valentine’s Day in 1934. “The Brady Bunch” star broke millions of hearts when she died on Nov. 24, 2016.)

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Chloe Grace Moretz
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include soprano Leontyne Price, who was born in 1927; “Hart to Hart” star Robert Wagner, who was born in 1930; “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love” singer Roberta Flack, who was born in 1937; swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Mark Spitz, who was born in 1950; “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer, who was born in 1955; “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos, who was born in 1961; political commentator Glenn Beck, who was born in 1964; Oscar-winning actress Laura Dern, who was born in 1967; “Pitch Perfect” star Elizabeth Banks, who was born in 1974; Pro Football Hall of Famer Ty Law, who was born in 1974; “We’re the Millers” star Emma Roberts, who was born in 1991; “Mother/Android” star Chloe Grace Moretz, who was born in 1997; and “Black-ish” star Yara Shahidi, who was born in 2000.